


Darken

by CrystallizedPen



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: AU, M/M, Tainted AU, ending, spoiler - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 15:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3656292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystallizedPen/pseuds/CrystallizedPen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alisha knew that the journey was a failure. But no one wanted to tell her about anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Darken

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first and scratched idea of a Tained AU that I wanted to write before. But I scratched this fic midway because I found a new idea, which is 'A World Without You" 
> 
> Then I came across this half-written fic and decided to finish it up. 
> 
> A/N: Please excuse any mistakes again.

“Have you heard about the rumor of a big dragon that recently appeared at the forest near the capital?”

“It is a big dragon with black scale and its eyes reflected a deep purple color.”

“What’s more, apparently there was a human clad in black together with it.”

“By the way, what happened to the Shepherd? Have you heard any news about him lately?”

Alisha listened to the conversations as they went on and on. The princess clenched her fingers together, eyes flared up with a pained expression. She- the same with other people was left in the dark for the most part, hopefully waiting for the journey of the Shepherd to end in fruitful result.

But the news never reached her side. One day, Rose just appeared in front of her mansion with a veil of darkness clouded her blue eyes, saying that she could not do it. Alisha knew something was wrong, and no sight of Sorey around only added fear to her heart.

The Seraphs returned to their places, while Lailah continued her sleep at the Sacred Church of Lady Lake, waiting for the next person to wake her up and made a pact with her. Until then, she shall pray that the impurities would refrain from tainting this world any further. Rose returned to her guild, and continued doing their jobs. Everything seemed to fall back into its order from the very beginning.

Alisha soon began to forget that her encounter with the young Shepherd ever existed. The little part of their journey together soon became something small as a light breeze that came with spring. A pleasant yet unsettling wind.

The disasters became worse and worse each months. The princess tried her best to find any human that had Shepherd potential to try sealing a contract with the Lady of the Lake. But so far, it was still a far-fetch dream that beyond her reach.

Then the rumor reached her ears, about a silver dragon with amethyst eyes and a person clad in black spotted near the forest beyond the capital. Alisha did not need another second to believe in it. She confronted the man, and asked him the exact location of the dragon. They all looked at her, telling her it was a crazy idea to want to go near the forest. But she just had to try. Rose refused to tell her what happened, and she had no means to communicate with Lailah as the Seraph seemed to refuse to talk about it. They just told her that the journey failed.

So the next few days, she steeled herself and wandered into the forest again, keeping the map that Sorey once gave her closely to her hand. The princess knight made her way through the thick forest, looking for at least something to quell her heart.

“Sorey…where are you?”

* * *

 

Alisha looked up at the sun, it was her second day wandered around in this forest, in hope of finding something that she was not even sure if it was there. The princess decided to sit down a nearby tree to rest, as the memories of that day flooded her mind. It was such a destined encounter. To be rescued by a stranger with hospitality, then the very same stranger became the Shepherd in the legend to rid the world of the Lord of Calamity. But then, she was left in a mystery as to what happened to Sorey. She wanted to know, for the sake of the world. But above all, for her sake as a friend of him. Alisha stood up from her resting position, deeming that she had had enough of rest and should move forward.

That was when the tree next to her got struck by lightning, and the thought that crossed her mind was not again. She quickly evaded herself and ran away from them as more and more lightning continue to strike down besides her. However, lady luck was not with her this time yet again. Alisha felt herself slipped down a slope and fell through a hole underneath her. She tried to grab on the vines to slow down her fall but it was hard and slippery. And before long, she found herself hurt all over and plugged into certain darkness when her body hit the stone floor underneath.

Alisha slowly opened her eyes as she felt someone swayed her lightly on the shoulder. The princess blinked her eyes, turning her head around to take in her surrounding. When suddenly a lock of brown hair leaned closer towards her face, she startled and rummaged around to find her weapon. In which was right next to her. But upon realized just how familiar the face of the person in front of her, she did not feel the need to hold onto her spear anymore.

“Sorey!” She exclaimed, feeling utterly happy to see the person in front of her did not seem to change much in appearance.

The same color of green that she first landed her eyes on long ago. His brown spiky hair fluttered as his head croaked aside. Then a small smile appeared on his lips as he spoke, “What’s with you and falling off holes now?”

The princess looked around, and realized it was the very same spot that she first met the Shepherd for the first time. The underground ruin near the Village of the Seraphim. The man offered her a hand to grab onto as she stood up, checking for any injuries. Luckily there was none except minor scratches.

“So why are you here?” Sorey turned his body around, facing his back at her.

“Actually, Sorey…I want to know what happened to you. Rose and the other refused to talk about it, and I…” The princess remembered all the nights that she had imagined a better world free of impurities.

Sorey remained silent, his back still facing her as he began walking away, telling her that she should leave here as soon as possible, without as much to tell her why, “Is that the only reason why you are here?”

“Sorey! Tell me what happened?” She grabbed the Shepherd’s hand, turning him around. But only to be met by a pair of rigid dull eyes, staring back at her, emotionless, liked a night sky without light.

What happened?

“I... had became tainted, that I no longer fitted to be a Shepherd.” He spoke in a low voice. His eyes casted downwards as if he was trying to deny that fact.

“Sorey… You know it is not…”

“It is my fault.” Sorey gritted his teeth. He still remembered clearly that day when everything happened just within a blink of an eye. Because he was too powerless, too hesitant. “It was because of me that Mikleo…”

A powerful roar of a creature resounded through the ruin. It was a roar of destructive and it was near. Sorey’s eyes glanced from side to side, then he grabbed her hand and ran through the ruin, dragging the princess with him.

“You need to get out of here.”

Both of them dashed through corners and cuts inside the ruin and reached the entrance. They stepped up the stone staircases and as the sunlight finally drowned her eyes. A gigantic, enormous black shadow dropped down in front of them. A black dragon with shiny scales roared at them. The sound hurt Alisha’s ears as she stumbled backwards, feeling a certain level of dizziness spread through her brain.

“Stop! Alisha means us no harm.” Sorey spoke to the dragon, his hand extended forward in a calming gesture, “You remember her right? It’s Alisha.”

The dragon seemed to able to understand, because it stopped for a moment, looking confused. Sorey let himself relaxed for a bit, while motioning for Alisha to slowly back down.

The dragon bored its dark purple eyes at her, looking at her then he growled. That purple eyes…seemed so distant yet familiar. It was like the look of a longing friend, of a one that could no longer remember his old self. The one that discarded the humanity within him and turned into a creature that no longer capable of human emotions.

“Oh no…Alisha run!”

The dragon shouted, then that was that screeching noise again, Alisha saw Sorey grabbed onto her hand and dragged away yet again. They ran through bushes and trees, scratching themselves a bit here and there, until the shadow of the dragon was only a tiny dot behind them and then it vanished from their eyesight.

Sorey deemed it was safe now, so he and Alisha sat down on the ground and let themselves a few minutes of resting. Alisha looked at the brunet, feeling an unspoken dismay within his emerald eyes. That dragon must surely be…

“I guess…that did not work either.” Sorey leaned against the tree, looking at up the small sky that covered up by leaves and layers of leaves. The sunlight shone through open spaces here and there, but it was not bright enough to allow anymore hope, at least not to Sorey.

“Alisha, you should not come around here anymore. It is already hard for me to keep him from going near the capital.” Sorey looked down at his feet as he curled himself up, hands on top of his knees, “Also please issue official warning for your citizens, telling them not to go anywhere near Izuchi.”

Alisha nodded her head. They both sat together for a few more minutes then Sorey stood up and offered to show her out. The princess silently walked behind him, until the trees got thinner, and the plain is more visible in view.

“I’m going to go back,. Remember, don't come near the forest again.” Sorey reminded her, his eyes slanted down in a sad feel, and his smile was equally bitter.

The one who used to be the Shepherd-the symbol of pureness and hope turned his head around as he walked away. And Alisha knew that it was going to be her last time seeing him, despite how much she denied it.

“Sorey, what are you going to do?”

“Probably…wait for the day that we could be free.”

For him, time itself had stopped and there was no such thing as tomorrow for him.

Alisha looked up at the sky, then she walked back the way she came from, knowing that everything was going to be just a dream. And the legend of the Shepherd, was to remain a myth for hundreds of years to come. That was if the world managed to survive till the day dawn finally arrived again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank everyone for reading, :DDD


End file.
